Erected: 1981
Renovations/Additions: None
Sq. Footage: 46,166

The original Washington Elementary School building was located at 9th and Washington Streets, where the school’s playground stands today. The building had four classrooms with a playroom in the basement. Made of wood frame construction and covered with red brick, the building, shaped like a capital “I,” had its front door on Washington Street. Classrooms on the ends of the school had three walls of windows about 12 feet tall!

With growing enrollment, the school board decided to build a new school on Washington’s old playground in 1980 while the children went to school in the old building. The new Washington Elementary School opened on September 9, 1981, housing a gym, art and music rooms, seminar rooms, an indoor garden and carpeted classrooms. The old Washington was torn down during the summer of 1981, and this area became the new school’s playground.

In the small garden at the Cedar Street doors of the current building lies the headstone from above the old building’s front doors. It is a tiny memorial to a once busy, bustling school building filled with eager children and dedicated teachers.